The works of Chicano lawyer, activist and author Oscar “Zeta” Costa may now become a TV series, and perhaps a movie, too nearly 50 years after his unresolved disappearance. Writer, producer and showrunner Natalie Chaidez has reportedly acquired the film and TV rights to Costa’s semi-autobiographical books Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People.

Both books, hybrids of fiction and autobiography, tell Costa’s account of coming of age in the 1960s, his personal challenges, activism and self-discovery in a fictionalized version of himself through the main character, the Chicano lawyer Buffalo “Zeta” Brown. Both works were published a few years before Costa disappeared during a trip to Mexico in 1974.

Chaidez is an accomplished Latina filmmaker in Hollywood. Her credentials include executive producing series like Heroes, V, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 12 Monkeys and Hunters and Queen of the South. Heroes earned her several award nominations, including the Primetime Emmy, Image Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards. For its part, Queen of the South, an action/crime/drama that recently ended after five seasons on the USA Network, won an Imagen Award and about ten other nominations.

Currently, Chaidez is a showrunner on USA Network The Flight Attendant, a series that has won two Rockie awards at Canada’s Banff World Media Festival. 

To develop the projects based on Costa’s books, Chaidez has teamed up with Phillip Rodriguez, a filmmaker who produced a documentary on the late Chicano author, The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo (2017). Rodriguez also produced another documentary on the late L.A. Times and Univision journalist Chicano figure, Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle who was killed by a County Sherrif at the 1971 Chicano Moratorium. He has also produced several other TV doc series for PBS.

Joining Chaidez and Rodriguez is up-and-coming screenwriter Joe Loya, who was a writer on Queen of the South with Chaidez. Loya has also written for NBC’s crime action series Taken.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Acosta rose to prominence when he moved to East Los Angeles and joined the Chicano movement in the late 1960s. As a lawyer, he represented the leaders of the historic East L.A. Walkouts lead by students in support of civil rights and better education for Mexican Americans.

“Oscar Zeta Acosta has been a passion of mine since I first encountered his books in an East LA library,” Chaidez told the trade publication Deadline, which first reported the deal. “Acosta’s story is one of the deepest and cinematic stories in the Latinx canon. I’m thrilled to bring his story to life,” added the filmmaker, who is of Mexican and Irish descent. 

Acosta is said to be the basis for the character of Dr. Gonzo in the 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. The novel was made into a movie of the same title directed by Terry Gillam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro — with the later Puerto Rican actor playing Dr. Gonzo. 

Featured Photos: Natalie Chaidez (Credit: Fox) / Oscar “Zeta” Costa (Credit: Wikipedia)

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A Florida Drama With Moral Dilemmas 

Edgar Ramirez is making his mark on Netflix. The billion-dollar streaming site has ordered the new series Florida Man, created by Donald Todd and starring Ramirez.  

The eight-episode series, described in the same vein as Body Heat and Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight, revolves around a struggling ex-cop who returns to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend. His gig becomes a spiraling journey into buried family secrets and moral dilemmas about wrong and right.

Ramirez currently stars in Netflix’s Yes Day alongside Jenna Ortega and Jennifer Garner. The Venezuelan actor recently starred in HBO’s The Undoing as detective Joe Mendoza. His upcoming credits include Borderlands by Eli Roth and Disney’s Jungle Cruise where he’ll join stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The actor has also joined Universal’s spy thriller 355. He has been nominated for the Golden Globe twice for his performances in Carlos and American Crime Story. Todd, who will serve as an exec-producer and showrunner of the hour-long drama, is known for creating the Christina Applegate comedy series Samatha Who? for ABC. He has won a Writers Guild Award for his work on Ugly Betty and has been nominated for an Emmy, Writers Guild Award and Golden Globe for This Is Us.

Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan are exec-producing for Aggregate under their first-look deal at the streaming service.

A New, Modern Fantasy Island

Roselyn Sanchez is set to star in Fox’s update of Fantasy Island.

The straight-to-series drama is a modern update of the former ABC entry that takes place at a luxury resort where literally any fantasy requested by guests is fulfilled, though it always comes with a twist. Each episode will tell emotional, provocative stories about people who arrive with dreams and desires and depart enlightened and transformed through the magical realism of Fantasy Island.

The Grand Hotel and Devious Maids alum will play a descendant of Ricardo Montalban‘s Mr. Roarke. Sanchez’s Elena Roarke is described as a woman who set aside her own ambitions and the love of her life to uphold her family’s legacy. Sophisticated, insightful and always charming, Elena’s calm exterior masks the challenges of the responsibilities she has assumed as a steward of this mysterious island.

Sanchez toplines a cast that also includes John Gabriel Rodriquez (Rosewood) as pilot Javier, who also is the head of island transportation and a jack of all trades, and Kiara Barnes (The Bold and the Beautiful) as Ruby Okoro, a young woman with an old soul who arrives on Fantasy Island with a terminal illness and is given a new lease on life there.

The Puerto Rican actress’s film credits include Rush Hour 2, Boat Trip, The Game Plan and Act of Valor. Sanchez is also known as a singer-songwriter and was nominated for a Latin Grammy for her single “Amor Amor” in 2003. She first grew to international fame after she won the title of Miss American Petite in 1993. 

Production on the new Fantasy Island is already underway in Puerto Rico. The new take is exec produced by Liz Craft and Sarah Fain (The Shield). Sony Pictures TV, Gemstone Studios and Fox Entertainment are the studios on the co-production.

All seven seasons of the original Fantasy Island and the late ’90s reboot are available on Fox’s free-streaming platform Tubi, allowing viewers to familiarize themselves with the predecessor before the new series airs on August 10.

Sanchez is repped by APA, Alchemy Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein. 

Another Showrunner Joins Popular HBO Series

Natalie Chaidez is boarding the extended HBO Max drama The Flight Attendant. 

Chaidez will serve as co-showrunner alongside Steve Yockey for the second season of the drama series starring Kaley Cuoco. The Flight Attendant was initially intended to be only a limited series but it was expanded due to its popularity.

Natalie Chaidez, who was previously exec producer of USA Network’s Queen of the South, is joining the series as co-showrunner alongside Steve Yockey for its second season.

She will exec produce alongside showrunner Yockey, Cuoco, Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. 

There are other changes. Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin, who were co-showrunners of season one, will depart.

The series, based on the book of the same name by author Chris Bohjalian, centers on alcoholic, globe-trotting flight attendant Cassie Bowen (Cuoco) who get caught in the middle of an espionage plot following her affair with a first-class passenger that winds up murdered after their night together.

The series has rated relatively highly amongst critics holding a 7.1 score on IMDb and 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series also stars Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez, Zosia Mamet, Michelle Gomez, T.R. Knight, Colin Woodell, Merle Dandridge, Griffin Matthews and Nolan Gerard Funk.

It is produced by Warner Bros. Television, Cuoco’s Yes, Norman Productions, and Berlanti Productions. Norman’s Suzanne McCormack is co-executive producer.

Chaidez is a veteran creator, executive producer and showrunner who works in both television and features. She exec produced and wrote Queen of the South, created and executive produced Syfy drama Hunters and wrote and produced series including 12 Monkeys, In Plain Sight, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Heroes.

The L.A. native is of Mexican descent and a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles’ School of Theater, Film and Television. 

She recently signed with CAA for representation in all areas and continues to be represented by Susan Solomon at Circle of Confusion.

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